During the last two days Steering Board of the
Peace Implementation Council had an opportunity to exchange views on the
situation in BiH among ourselves, with the BiH Presidency, Chairman of the
Council of Ministers, his two deputies and the leaders of the 6 political
parties that make up the governing coalition.

We discussed the current political situation in BiH and the strategy of
future presence of International Community in BiH. The adopted Communiqué is now
available.

There are three points I want to stress:

· The first is that the Peace
Implementation Council is united in its views and the Communique was adopted
unanimously by all PIC members.

· It was stressed several times
that all parties must fully comply with the DPA.

· Closure of OHR remains our goal,
but the BiH authorities must ensure that conditions for OHR closure are met.

Let me elaborate on the last point.

Long-term objective of the PIC and OHR is to see Bosnia and Herzegovina as a
“peaceful, viable state irreversibly on course for European integration”.

In this context there are a number of longstanding objectives that the PIC
Steering Board considers essential for the creation of such a peaceful, viable
state.

The most critical issues will be considered objectives to be achieved by the
BiH authorities before transition can take place. From a long list of known
priorities we have selected the key ones for transition, for closure of OHR.

They are:

· Resolution of State Property

· Resolution of Defence
Property

· Completion of the Brcko Final
Award

· Fiscal Sustainability of the
State

· Entrenchment of the Rule of Law

In addition to these objectives there are also two conditions: signing of the
SAA and a positive assessment of the situation in BiH by the PIC SB are
essential prior to transition.

Let me stress that there is nothing new in these objectives. They are part of
the OHR work-plan, are approved by the PIC SB and have all been previously
recognized by BiH authorities as their obligations.

The fulfilment of these objectives and conditions would open the way for
transition of OHR. Until then OHR will remain in place and continue to carry out
its mandate under the Dayton Peace Agreement, ensuring full respect of the Peace
Agreement.

There has been a declared goal of OHR closure since 2006. Rather than a time
driven process we are now focusing on policy objectives to be achieved. Once
they are in place OHR could close.

The Peace Implementation Council Steering Board will be regularly reviewing
progress at its meetings in Sarajevo. The next comprehensive review will take
place at the next PIC SB meeting in June.

In terms of next reform steps, it is clear that most urgent is adoption of
police reform legislation.

The Steering Board of the PIC welcomed the progress made by BiH leadership,
which led to the initialling of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement on 4
December last year.

The signing of the SAA is finally in reach, as soon as the necessary
conditions are met.

However PIC SB also stated that important underlying problems, which gave
rise to recent crises, remain in BiH.

It is worrying that the positive, constructive atmosphere which led to the
initialling of the SAA deteriorated so quickly.

Instead of engaging in intense dialogue to find solutions; the political
leadership, once again took up diametrically opposed and maximalist
positions.

There have been renewed tensions between political actors over the future
constitutional make-up of the country as well as the role and competencies of
the state. State-level institutions have been called into question and there
have also been challenges to the Dayton Peace Agreement.

The PIC SB expressed deep concern with official calls for secession and
stressed that it is clear that an Entity of BiH has no right to secede from
Bosnia and Herzegovina.

One of the important elements stressed by all the members of the Peace
Implementation Steering Board is that the BiH politicians must fully comply with
the Dayton/Paris Peace Agreement. They must end the practice of threatening
unilateral changes to the constitutional structure of the country.

There must be no question that Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of two
entities and that Bosniacs, Croats and Serbs are constituent peoples throughout
the whole country.

In every country political life has its positive and negative cycles, but in
BiH the negative political cycles seem to be much longer and more difficult to
break. Through their words and actions the political leadership can either
transform the negative cycles into positive ones or escalate the situation into
another downward spiral.

We have many examples that progress can be achieved quickly when there is
dialogue and political will. This is currently missing in BiH. PIC stressed that
all the local leaders must engage in a dialogue.

The Peace Implementation Council will continue to review and monitor the
situation in the country against the objectives and conditions I have outlined
and which are presented in more detail in our Communiqué.

Before concluding I just want to stress once again that we have full
unanimity in the PIC Steering Board that all parties must comply with the Dayton
Peace Agreement as well as all other issues we discussed. It is important and
encouraging that we adopted a joint platform in which we defined what must be
done to start the process of OHR transition.

Thank you.

RTQ's:

Swiss Broadcasting Corporation:

The fact that you were able to set a deadline and now you basically do not
have any more timeframe, a defined, precise timeframe, at least in public,
should we consider that as a signal that things have gone actually worse for
Bosnia and Herzegovina then before? Considering the messages you were giving,
you were basically telling the Bosnians that, if you do not want to see our
face again do this, this and this. Are you actually sure that they want you
to leave -behind the official wording of some politicians?

High Representative / EU Special Representative, Miroslav
Lajčák:

The answer to your first question is no. We changed our approach
because we believe and I personally strongly believe that the approach which is
based on policy objectives is the proper one. As soon as we focus on time we
cannot predict, we cannot foresee what the developmentswill be, plus we will
have the local players playing against the time. Here we expect positive
motivation from all the players to try to achieve the set objectives, because we
all know that by achieving these objectives Bosnia and Herzegovina will become a
better functioning state with stronger state-level institutions more efficiently
functioning. So, I do believe that this is the right approach. It is the result
of the consultations we had with all of the members of the Peace Implementation
Council and with the local players as well, and we expect everybody to be
focused on the target here.

And what was the second question?

Swiss Broadcasting Corporation:

Are you sure they want you to leave? It is so nice to have you here.

High Representative / EU Special Representative, Miroslav
Lajčák:

It is difficult to find one issue on which the position of all the players in
Bosnia and Herzegovina is united and of course the presence of the OHR is
amongst these issues where we have different approaches, different views – of
course we know that, but we are sure that the strategy which was adopted today
is the one which will be accepted and supported by all the local players for all
the reasons they may have.

Italian news agency Apcom:

There was one word that you did not mention, and that is Kosovo. How worried
are you about the impact of the independence of Kosovo on Bosnia? Is this
destabilizing the country or not? Also, after these two days of meetings are you
satisfied that the EU and the international community are focusing enough on
Bosnia and are not being distracted by what is happening in Priština and
Belgrade?

High Representative / EU Special Representative, Miroslav
Lajčák:

I, as the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, am responsible to
make sure that Bosnia and Herzegovina is not affected by the developments in the
region, including Kosovo. It is also my goal to make sure that the international
community, which is present and active in Bosnia and Herzegovina, stays united.
And this has been just achieved and I feel greatly encouraged by the fact that
we demonstrated unity in assessing the situation and future activities in Bosnia
and Herzegovina.

The second point that I would like to make is that Bosnia and Herzegovina is
not a hostage of Kosovo. Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country that knows exactly
what the tasks ahead are and what has to be done in order to progress along the
European path. So, there is no single issue on which Bosnia and Herzegovina
depends on Kosovo.

Thirdly, we have seen reactions, particularly in Republica Srpska. We also
heard from Prime Minister Dodik today and he has guaranteed peace and stability
in Republica Srpska regardless of the developments in the region, and he
continues to provide his guarantees. We take his word for granted and we do not
expect to se any commotions or any signs of destabilization in Bosnia and
Herzegovina.

Frank Hofmann, Deutsche Welle:

When I have in mind the pictures from Banja Luka yesterday and also the
previous days before that – I am talking about the attacks on the German
Consulate there and the attempted attacks on the American consulate - this
does not give me a very strong picture of peace and quietness when it comes to
Banja Luka. Also, it does not give me a feeling that Bosnia is not a hostage of
Kosovo like you were pointing out. So my question is are you ready to use your
Bonn powers to ease this and to calm the situation down again? After I heard
what Mr. Dodik said in his speech I had the impression that he is indeed playing
with the situation. That is my first question.

My second question is that if we have in mind that the politics and the
policy of conditionality in the past time in Bosnia did not really succeed and
that you did a great job to bring Bosnia back on track after the blockades only
a couple of months ago, what is your argument pro a decision to now bring back
conditionality on the table?

High Representative / EU Special Representative, Miroslav
Lajčák:

First on Kosovo. Of course I am not an independent political analyst to
speculate about the impact. I made it clear that of course Kosovo does have an
impact, at least in creating an atmosphere throughout the region. At the same
time, Bosnia is not a hostage of Kosovo and there is no excuse to use Kosovo for
Bosnia’s own problems and setbacks. So Bosnia’s destiny is in the hands of
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s representatives. I do not want to speculate about the
sentiment of the Serbian nation throughout the region. Prime Minister Dodik
spoke about it at length and he said that he is under pressure. At the same
time, the RS authorities were able to control the expressions of this overall
Serbian sentiment. I do not expect any further protests or movements which might
have the capacity to destabilize the country.

Of course I have accepted my mandate and the Bonn powers are a part of my
mandate. So that means that if there are threats to the peace and stability and
to the respect for the Dayton Peace Agreement I will have no hesitation and I
will use my Bonn powers.

Your second question was on conditionality. I do believe that the conditions
we have set and defined today are positive ones. So, I am a believer of positive
conditionality. These conditions should motivate our partners to deliver on
their promises. First of all, as I said, the issues are not new, they have been
around for some time and most of the pieces of legislation have been in the pipe
lines already, in one way or another, and the end aim is a better functioning
state. So I would not call this negative conditionality, on the contrary.

Tarik Lazović, Dnevni Avaz:

About the Bonn powers again. Some Bosnian officials, exactly - Mr. Željko
Komšić, a member of the Presidency and the Chairman, and Prime Minister Dodik -
today said that you did not have any more support from the Peace Implementation
Council to use the Bonn powers. Is that correct?

High Representative / EU Special Representative, Miroslav
Lajčák:

No it is not. The Bonn powers are my prerogative, it is my responsibility, my
authority. I said that I will have no hesitation to use my Bonn powers whenever
I feel I have to use them. I do not think that my role as the High
Representative and the role of the Bonn powers that I have is to do the job
instead of or for the legitimately elected local representatives. So, there are
issues which they have to solve on their level, they have to discuss and engage
in talks, and arrive at a consensual agreement. If they believe the OHR, High
Representative and Bonn powers are here to do the job for one party, to impose
their will on another party, then we do not share the same understanding of the
role of the High Representative and the Bonn powers.